Taking inspiration from the Poppy Appeal art installation at the Tower of London, we commissioned well-known designer Paul Cocksedge to creatively represent the impact of blood cancer on the everyday lives of patients. His vision resulted in a large-scale typographic forest of the names of 104 real people with blood cancer, sourced through our nine partner organisations. Each sculpture, perfectly sized to match its namesake’s height, told a story of shock or sadness – but ultimately of hope and determination. It was unveiled in a high-footfall central London location, Paternoster Square, on the 4th September and was in place until 30 September – the whole of Blood Cancer Awareness Month. This was an ideal location to allow the public to visually witness the scale of the issue (with 104 people in the UK being diagnosed everyday) and to educate on its impact.

We launched the Make Blood Cancer Visible campaign in September 2017, having secured the proactive engagement and involvement of nine patient groups representing blood cancers.

On Monday 4th September, the installation was unveiled at London’s Paternoster Square and was in place for the whole month. This was a large-scale typographic forest of the names of 104 real people with blood cancer, sourced through our nine partner organisations. Each sculpture, was matched its namesake’s height and told a story of shock or sadness – but ultimately of hope and determination.

To coincide, we hosted a launch event at a local venue attended by patient group representatives, patients and journalists. Our campaign online hub also went live and we released new data to the media on the findings of a YouGov survey, commissioned to ascertain UK awareness of blood cancer. Extensive traditional and social media outreach was conducted by all parties involved.

Media Outputs

• 89 pieces of media coverage across the UK national and local media, reaching over

292.4 million people. That’s an increase in coverage of almost 500% from Blood Cancer

Awareness Week 2016 which achieved just 15 pieces of coverage.

• 100% of coverage included disease awareness messaging around prevalence

• Over 1,850 mentions of #makebloodcancervisible on twitter and 461 on Instagram

• The campaign had a total reach of over 1 million through social media channels during

September 2017 – with more than 7.5k video views

• 62% of media articles included a patient story/quote

• 46% of coverage included a mentioned our company

Target Audience Outcomes

Secured engagement and active involvement of nine PAGs representing blood cancers - Bloodwise, Leukaemia CARE, Myeloma UK, CLL Support Association, Waldenstrom (WM) UK, Anthony Nolan, MDS Foundation, Lymphoma Association and CML Support

It is estimated that 104,000 people visited the installation and engaged with the 104 stories represented in the installation.

There were 1,091 unique visits to the MBCV website, with users spending an average of 9 minutes per visit from 4-30 September.

Supporting article from Henry Smith MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Blood Cancer (APPGBC) about the need for greater awareness of blood cancer in the UK

Campaign cited as an example of best practise in first report of the APPGBC - The ‘Hidden’ cancer, which calls for the need to improve blood cancer care and to raise public awareness of blood cancer